In the meantime, I am having major TEABS (for the uninitiated, The End of an Awesome Book Syndrome) because I literally just finished reading Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone ten minutes ago. I'll gush about this book in a moment, but in the meantime, here we go with another series of reports brought to you by yours truly:
//edit// I suddenly remembered that there were at least three books I read in June that I never got around to reviewing: Adaptation by Malinda Lo, Bitter Melon by Cara Chow, and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. It's been too long, so I probably won't review them, but in case anyone wants my advice: give Adaptation a shot and see if it's your cup of tea; Bitter Melon is interesting if you're interested in seeing culturally-tinged mother-daughter tension; Lola and the Boy Next Door is utterly fluffy and did not settle well with me, mainly because I did not root for anybody in the book.
-------------------------
1. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Before I get into this book, you're probably all wondering how I suddenly found myself with both the time and access to read all these books. As it turned out, during one of my lunch breaks at work, I decided to trek all the way to the Duke library on the other side of campus, on a whim. I made the startling discovery that the library I had spent so many wretched hours in as an undergraduate actually stocked "popular" fiction. I HAD NO IDEA! They even have a few young adult books! That first day, I borrowed three books: two non-fiction ones (Sticks and Stones by Emily Bazelon, A History of Opera by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker--both with the intent of serving "research" purposes for my writing), and a fiction one that I had read a review for on FYA.
The book takes place in the 1950s in New Orleans. Our heroine Josie is the teenaged daughter of a prostitute. The other prostitutes who live in the brothel where she grew up all are sweet and awesome, but her mother is godawful. Before Josie was even ten years old, she was mixing alcoholic drinks for her mother. Josie, who dreams of getting the hell out of New Orleans, now works at a bookstore, and one day a stranger to town enters the bookstore and has a fun conversation with Josie. But barely a day later, the stranger winds up dead and Josie becomes tangled up in an investigation that ends up testing her allegiances with many of the people around her. Oh, and there's a minor love triangle to boot.
I haven't read Ruta Sepetys' first book, which I've heard many good things about. I have major respect for historical fiction writers who do their research. I'm no expert in 1950s New Orleans, but the rich historical details came to life for me. Though I was kind of iffy about the storyline of Josie applying to Smith College. Was that how people applied to college back then? Again, I'm no expert so I have no clue.
Overall, however, this book didn't quite stick with me. For some reason, I never really warmed up to Josie. There are some characters I read in books, where I'll eventually reach a point and think, Wow, I totally get this character. This wasn't the case with Josie. She's had a tough childhood, and it's hardened her on the outside, but I don't feel like I ever got a good grasp of what was going on underneath. Though I really liked some of the major side characters, such as the brothel madame who basically raised Josie, I was rather ambivalent about the love interests--they came across as rather flat.
Actually, that's kind of how I felt about the plot. It felt flat. The mystery of who killed the stranger set the plot into action, but at a certain point, I already had a sense of who the culprit was and I didn't really care about the murder mystery anymore. And I suppose this isn't necessary for every book out there, but I wanted to see more character growth from Josie. I ended the book feeling like nothing had really been resolved, and sure--the last thing we see is Josie riding off with new dreams, but I didn't feel like her trajectory as a character had moved all that much from before. Maybe I'll try Sepetys' first book sometime, but this book just didn't do it for me.
2. Seigi no Mikata
Well guys, this is the first drama that I've watched since high school. I only picked up this drama for two reasons: 1) I started reading the manga a few weeks ago and was majorly bummed that the scanlations have not been updated for quite some time, and I impatiently wanted to know what was going to happen; 2) I have low patience for TV serials, but Japanese dramas I can tolerate, simply because they're short (usually around 10 episodes).
Youko, a high school girl, sees her older sister Makiko as a demon. Makiko, whom everyone reveres for her smarts and beauty, torments her sister regularly and is not afraid to chew out others or resort to mean tactics when things don't go her way. Ironically, all of her "evil acts" usually ends up having a positive outcome in some way, which has earned her the reputation of "Ally of Justice" in the community. When Makiko sets her sights on a handsome, elite co-worker, she wrangles poor Youko into all sorts of shenanigans aimed at making him fall in love with Makiko.
As cruel as she is, I was drawn to the manga in the first place solely because Makiko is so interesting. Some of her actions are just downright mean--such as telling Youko's first boyfriend who was waiting for her outside that Youko was busy pooping. (Though, the boy did end up dumping her, and not long after the boy was expelled for impregnating another girl he had been cheating with. So I guess it all worked out anyway.) But some are reminiscent of those moments when you've desperately wished you could get your sweet revenge on someone--for instance, letting her antagonistic co-worker walk around the office with a half-zipped skirt exposing her underwear. Sometimes I hated Makiko's guts, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
There are a lot of hilarious moments in this series that had me laughing out loud. There are also some cute moments, specifically with Youko and the popular guy at her school, Riku. However, I was really really dissatisfied by how their storyline ended-- near the end, I desperately wanted to smack Youko and be like, FORGET ABOUT YOUR SISTER AND GO LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE! I felt like there was this whole build-up between Youko and Riku, and then it just completely deflated at the end.
Overall though, I liked this drama and didn't feel like wasted hours of my precious time (unlike some dramas I indulged in during my youth). The side characters, particularly the family members, were really well done. One that particularly sticks in my mind is Youko and Makiko's mother. If you were like me and thought she was a ditzy airhead at the beginning, THINK AGAIN. If you can get over wanting to smack Makiko for her insane bullying and Youko for not growing a spine, this series is only ten episodes long and may very well be worth your time.
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Much like John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, I've heard about this book for ages. Except I didn't have any strong desire to read it, because for some reason, I had the misconceived notion planted in my head that this book was about fairies and paranormal princes. I have no idea where I got this idea--probably read a summary for a different book and mistakenly associated it with this book. Nothing against fairies, and I can still change my mind if I stumble across the right book, but I'm just not a big fan of those type of stories.
But no, this book is about something even better. As soon as I read the first few words, I knew this was going to be good:
Seeing these words, I immediately had a flashback to CLAMP's Wish, a series I read in high school. Part of Wish centered on the love story of an angel and a demon who cast aside their immortality and eloped to Earth. Who gives a crap about Romeo and Juliet, THIS was a bonafide forbidden romance. I'm not a huge fan of paranormal romances--never bothered with reading some of those popular books like Shiver or Hush, Hush or that whole slew of vampire novels--but, maybe it's due to my fond memories of Wish, my interest is piqued when I hear that a book has angels and demons involved.
The story doesn't return to this brief foreshadowing until later though. Instead, the book opens by introducing us to Karou, a girl with aquamarine hair and a number of unusual tattoos, who is pissed off by her cheating ex-boyfriend's attempts to win her back. It's all normal and relateably funny, but slowly and deftly, Laini Taylor eases us into the understanding that there is something unearthly going on with Karou. As it turns out, Karou has no knowledge of her past, other than the fact that she has been raised since infancy by four chimera, one of which is a wishmongerer named Brimstone who mysteriously collects teeth. There are a lot of things Karou doesn't know, but all of the secrets begin to unfold when Karou encounters an angel named Akiva.
From the very beginning, I could start to see why this book had gotten so popular. Laini Taylor's writing is some of the best I've seen in a young adult book. It's lush and full of details, and there are glittering lines all throughout the book. This definitely contributed to how well Taylor did the world-building in this book. Part of the reason I tend to be somewhat wary of urban fantasy and dystopian books is that when the world-building is ineffectively done, I get lost in info-dumps explaining how the book's world is organized. I was soundly impressed by how well Taylor wove the world-building into the plot, so that we could follow Karou through her storyline without major pauses to gape at the weird intricacies of the supernatural business happening covertly in Prague, where Karou lives.
In contrast to what I was saying about Josie in Out of the Easy, I "got" Karou. I rooted for her all the way through, and I was also a huge fan of her best friend, Zazuna, who has some of the funniest scenes in the book. I was a little lukewarm about the development of Akiva. I loved his backstory--specifically, how he's connected to Karou in an unusual way--but in the present setting, I thought his interactions with Karou transitioned far too abruptly. I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that I wanted to see more of a developmental arc in terms of his connection with specifically Karou as her lovely blue-haired strong-willed self.
Going into this book, I already knew this was the first in the series--fortunately for me, the second book already came out last year. If the Duke library happens to have a copy, you can bet your bottom I'm going to get my hands on it. I don't know if this book is everyone's cup of tea, but if your tastes are similar to mine, in that:
1. You love a good tragic romance (cough angelandemon cough).
2. You like a tough heroine with some spunk.
3. You like your fantasy in controlled doses, but executed so well and richly that it punches you in the gut.
4. You have an absurd fondness for masquerade ball scenes--there is a GOOD one in this book
5. You like stories of longing and pining :]
Then, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO READ THIS BOOK NOW!!
No comments:
Post a Comment